Speakers

Bharat Anand

Bharat Anand is the Henry R. Byers Professor of Business Administration in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School, and the faculty chair of the HBX initiative. He is an expert in digital strategy and corporate strategy. He has written over fifty research articles and case studies, and his work has received various awards and been profiled in several media outlets. He created Harvard Business School’s first executive program on digital strategies for media companies, has served as faculty head for the required strategy course in the MBA program, and currently serves as faculty chair of various executive programs at the school. He is a renowned teacher and a two-time winner of the “best teacher award” at Harvard Business School. Professor Anand has advised leading organizations and entrepreneurs worldwide. He received his B.A. in economics from Harvard College magna cum laude, and his PhD in economics from Princeton University. His new book, The Content Trap: A Strategist’s Guide to Digital Change, was published by Random House in October 2016.

Melissa Bell

Melissa Bell is the Publisher of Vox Media and co-founder of Vox.com. She leads Vox Media's company's Growth and Development team and its divisions: Analytics & Growth, Brand Development & Identity, and the Storytelling Studio, which builds multi-platform, multimedia stories across the company's eight editorial brands.

Prior to Vox Media, Melissa oversaw digital platforms at the Washington Post. She was also one of The Post’s most-read bloggers and a columnist for the Style section. Before joining The Post, she helped launch Mint, a Wall Street Journal subsidiary in India, where she lived for four years. She hails from San Diego, California and makes a mean banana-and-cheese quesadilla.

Nick Bell

Nick Bell joined the Snapchat team in April 2014. Previously Nick held the position of Senior Vice President of Digital Products at News Corporation in New York, USA. Nick also holds a Non-Executive position at Flock Associates the Integrated Marketing Agency based in London, UK.

Born in the North East of England, UK, Nick developed a passion for business creating and successfully exiting a number of start-ups in the B2B and B2C space. Bell formed Teenfront.com with Robbie Hodgkiss in 1998 at the age of 14, he later sold the business to Rools.com, a teenage payment solution provider.

Jim Brady

Jim Brady is the founder and CEO of Spirited Media, the mobile-focused local news startup that owns and operates BillyPenn.

Jim has spent almost 20 years in digital news, working in both digital-only and legacy operations, and has the gray, thinning hairline to prove it. He came to the digital world in April 1995 as sports editor of Digital Ink, the Washington Post’s first new media effort. Along the way, Jim has served as executive editor of washingtonpost.com, general manager of the now-deceased TBD.com, editor-in-chief of Digital First Media and in various executive roles at America Online.

Jim earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Print Journalism from The American University in 1989. Born in Queens, N.Y. and raised in Huntington, N.Y., he lives with his wife, Joan, and two stubborn beagles in Great Falls, Va. In his spare time, Jim likes to rant on Twitter about the New York Jets, drinks an ungodly amount of Diet Pepsi, listens to Rush and, according to Philadelphia Magazine, wears Dad jeans.

Bob Cohn

Bob Cohn is the president of The Atlantic. He oversees the magazine's business and editorial teams on its principal platforms: print, digital, video, live events, and consulting. He was named to the job in 2014 after serving five years as editor of Atlantic Digital, where he built and managed teams at TheAtlantic.com, The Wire, and CityLab, growing TheAtlantic.com's audience ten-fold.

Before coming to The Atlantic, Bob worked for eight years as the executive editor of Wired, where he helped the magazine find a mainstream following and earn a national reputation. During the dot-com boom, he was the executive editor of The Industry Standard, a newsweekly covering the Internet economy. He began his journalism career at Newsweek, where for 10 years he was a correspondent in the Washington bureau, covering the Supreme Court and the Justice Department and, later, the Clinton White House.

Bob helped lead The Atlantic to National Magazine Awards for Magazine of the Year (2016) and Best Website (2013). During his tenure at Wired, the magazine won three National Magazine Award for General Excellence. At Newsweek, he won the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award for coverage of the Supreme Court nomination process. A graduate of Stanford, Cohn has a masters degree in legal studies from Yale Law School.

Steven Cook

Steven Cook has more than 25 years of experience as an accomplished Fortune 50 global strategic brand marketer and CMO in customer-centric brand building, transformational innovation, B2C and B2B business development and account management with P&G, Coca-Cola and as Samsung’s SVP, CMO, North America. He has built and led iconic, image-based, consumer-centric passion brands globally online and offline in highly competitive categories.

Recently, he has been working with Fortune 1,000, VCs, PEs and tech startups in Silicon Valley, U.S. and Israel (Startup Nation) leveraging his global CMO experience. As the CMO for Champion Capital Group he works with Israeli startups and Innovation Labs in marketing, business development, product innovation and capital raise roles.

Maya Draisin

Maya Draisin is Head of Marketing at WIRED Media Group, which includes WIRED, Ars Technica and Backchannel. In this role, Maya develops and oversees new business opportunities for WMG and ensures that all extensions reflect the appropriate brand ethos. She has been integral in founding tentpole extensions including the WIRED Store and WIRED Business Conference, as well as consumer revenue initiatives like the WIRED T-shirt Collection, the Emerging Tech Council (an executive membership organization), and the Brand Lab – home to WMG's native content business – where she sold and oversaw #MakeTechHuman for Nokia, the largest single deal in Conde Nast history. Prior to WIRED, Maya co-founded The Webby Awards and its judging body, The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences. She has been named to MIN’s “21 Most Intriguing People in Media,” the MIN Marketing Hall of Fame, and Katie Couric's "Women Who Should Be Famous.”

Kerry Flynn

Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.

April Hinkle

Chief Revenue Officer

Texas Tribune

April Hinkle is the chief revenue officer of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan digital news organization recently called “one of the nonprofit news sector’s runaway success stories.” The Tribune's deep coverage of Texas politics and public policy can be found at its website, texastribune.org, in newspapers and on TV and radio stations across the state, and in the print and online editions of the Washington Post. Since its launch in 2009, the Tribune has won international acclaim and numerous honors, including nine national Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association and six awards from the Online News Association. Previously April spent nearly 21 years at Texas Monthly, as retail advertising director, advertising and marketing director, associate publisher and publisher.

Jeff Howe

Jeff Howe is the co-author of Whiplash: How to Survive Our Faster Future, which identifies nine big-picture trends/economic forces shaping our future and essential strategies for surviving the next wave of media and technology disruption. Jeff is an assistant professor and founding director of the Media Innovation program at Northeastern University and a visiting scholar at the MIT Media Lab. A longtime contributing editor at Wired, he coined the term crowdsourcing in a 2006 article for that magazine. In 2008, his book on the phenomenon, Crowdsourcing: How the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business, was published by Random House and has since been translated into ten languages. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and has written for the Washington Post, Newyorker.com, The New York Times, Time, Newsweek and many other publications. He currently lives in Cambridge with his wife and two children.

Russ Klein

Russ Klein has led marketing teams for many of the world’s foremost brand names—holding top marketing posts at Dr Pepper/7UP Companies, 7-Eleven Corporation, Burger King Corporation, Church’s Chicken, and Arby’s Restaurant Group. Russ has been named to “top marketer” lists spanning three decades, including his Burger King body of work that was recognized by ADWEEK as “The Advertiser of the Decade” for the 2000s.

As CEO for the American Marketing Association, Russ is charged with the transformation of the AMA to become the definitive force and voice shaping marketing best and next practices worldwide. Klein was once nicknamed “Flamethrower” by an industry publication for his managerial boldness and provocative advertising, but he now aspires to be the torch bearer for all marketers.​

Russ is recipient of the Fisher College of Business Distinguished Alumnus Award from The Ohio State University and is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.

Steven Levy

Steven Levy is the editor of Backchannel. Previously, he was chief technology writer and a senior editor for Newsweek; and the senior staff writer for Wired. Steven has had articles published in Harper's, Macworld, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Premiere, and Rolling Stone. He is the author of six books including In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes our Lives. Steven has won several awards during his 30+ years of writing about technology, including Hackers, which PC Magazine named the best Sci-Tech book written in the last twenty years and, Crypto, which won the grand eBook prize at the 2001 Frankfurt Book festival.

Matt Lieber

Matt Lieber is cofounder and President of Gimlet Media, the award-winning narrative podcasting company. In a previous life, Matt produced radio shows (On Point, Fair Game) and podcasts (Slate Culture Gabfest). He also worked as a management consultant at The Boston Consulting Group, where he focused on media and digital business. He holds an MBA from MIT Sloan.

Ross Martin

Ross Martin is Executive Vice President, Marketing Strategy and Engagement for Viacom. He oversees the company’s marketing, consumer intelligence, innovation, business development and creative strategy teams. Previously, Martin founded and ran Scratch, a division of Viacom that drives innovation by channeling the power of networks such as MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon in new ways. Martin joined Viacom in 2004 as the first Head of Programming for MTV's Emmy and Peabody Award winning college network, mtvU.

Prior to MTV, Martin ran Plant Film, a Los Angeles based production company partnered with Fox, VH1 and Dimension Films, served as VP of Film & Television for internet startup Nerve.com, and was a development executive for Spike Lee's 40 Acres and A Mule Filmworks. He has taught poetry at Washington University, the Rhode Island School of Design and The New School in Manhattan. His writing appears in The Kenyon Review, The Harvard Review, McSweeney's, Denver Quarterly, BOMB Magazine and multiple anthologies, and his first book, "The Cop Who Rides Alone," was published in 2002.

Martin is the Chairman of the Viacom Marketing Council and a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He was recently named to the Board of Directors for The Ad Council and serves on the advisory boards of St. Jude Children’s Hospital and the Yale University Center for Customer Insights. He has been named one of Fast Company's “100 Most Creative People In Business,” a "Media Maven" by Advertising Age, one of Fortune Magazine’s "40 Under 40" top business leaders and one of Adweek’s 50 most indispensable executives in advertising. In 2014, he was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Achievement.

Pooja Midha

SVP, Digital Sales & Operations

ABC Television Networks

Pooja Midha is senior vice president of digital ad sales and operations for the ABC Television Network. She reports to Geri Wang, president of sales for ABC. Ms. Midha is responsible for sales and strategy for all ABC digital sales, encompassing Watch ABC, abc.com, abcnews.com, GMA on Y, ABC on Hulu, Oscars.com, dynamically ad-served VOD, and all new media platform opportunities.

Ms. Midha joined ABC in August 2012. She was previously with Viacom Media Networks, where she was senior vice president of digital ad sales for the Music and Entertainment Group. Previously, she served as senior vice president, digital entertainment ad sales and integrated marketing for Viacom. From 2007 through 2011, Ms. Midha was group vice president, business development, for MTV Networks Digital. From 2005 to 2007, she served as vice president of marketing for MTV Networks International.

Ms. Midha serves as co-chair of the IAB Video Board, is a board member of IRTS, an executive board member of the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video, an advisory board member of The Seller Forum, and a volunteer and junior board member for Children’s Hope India. She has been honored as one of Ad Week Magazine’s 2016 “Young Influencers”. Ms. Midha holds a B.A. from Lehigh University and an MBA from Columbia Business School. She has completed the National Association of Multi-Ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) Executive Leadership Development Program from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.

Martin Nisenholtz

Martin Nisenholtz is a Professor of Digital Communication at Boston University and a Venture Partner at Firstmark Capital in New York. He recently completed a Fellowship at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he co-developed Riptide: An Oral History of the Epic Collision between Journalism and Digital Technology, 1980 to the Present (www.digitalriptide.org). Martin currently serves on the boards of PostMedia Network (PNC/A), Yellow Media (Y:CN), Exelate, and RealMatch. He is an advisor to The New York Times, Carmel Ventures and Digital Content Next.

From 1995-2012, Martin managed digital operations for The New York Times Company and was the founding CEO at New York Times Digital and nytimes.com. In 2002, Martin founded the Online Publishers Association (now, DCN), the leading trade association among quality content creators. In 1983, Martin founded Ogilvy Interactive, the first digital agency at a major US advertising firm. Martin began his career as a research scientist and assistant professor at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). He holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA from Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication, where he serves on the Alumni Board.

John Ridding

John Ridding is the Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Times Group, a role he has held since 2006. Under his stewardship the FT has expanded its global operations, successfully scaled and transformed its core business and acquired a number of companies that support its multichannel strategy including Money-Media, Medley Global Advisors, Exec-Appointments, Assanka (renamed FT Labs) and most recently Alpha Grid.

He managed the acquisition of the FT by Nikkei in 2015, a merger than has been completed smoothly to create a global news media leader. John also serves as a Special Executive Director of Nikkei. He is co-chair of Nikkei’s Digital Strategy Committee and sits on Nikkei’s Global Investment Committee.

During his tenure the FT has gained a reputation for innovation and digital transformation. The FT now attracts the largest paying readership in its 128-year history, with two-thirds of its readership now coming from digital channels and a growing presence in video and social media.

John has been at the FT for 28 years, including leadership roles in editorial, business and at the FT’s former parent company, Pearson, where he was President of Pearson Professional, a division of the global education business. John was a member of Pearson’s executive board, and also served as President of Pearson in Asia, over-seeing the group’s regional education strategy.

Prior to his Pearson role, John was the editor and publisher of the Financial Times in Asia. He led the launch of the FT’s Asia edition in 2003, steering it to a series of commercial and editorial successes. John also led the development of the FT’s Chinese language website, which now has more than 2m users and is the leading international source of business news in China. He also launched a number of training and educational initiatives in the region.

During his career at the FT, John has held a variety of senior positions in both editorial and business departments, including deputy editor, managing editor, Asia editor, Paris correspondent and Korea correspondent.

Before joining the FT, John worked at Oxford Analytica, heading the economics and Asia Pacific desks.

John has held a number of non-executive board positions, including the Economist, and FTSE (the joint venture between the FT and the London Stock Exchange). He continues to sit on the board of Bonnier Business Press, part of the international media conglomerate Bonnier AB.

Jennifer Saba

Jennifer Saba is a columnist for Reuters Breakingviews based in New York. Her focus is on media, technology, advertising and retail. Prior to joining Breakingviews in 2015, she was a reporter with Reuters news. Jennifer has covered media for almost 18 years. She began her career in advertising.

Vivian Schiller

Vivian is a longtime executive at the intersection of journalism, media and technology. She currently serves as an advisor to publishers and brands.

Most recently, Vivian was the Global Chair of News at Twitter. In this role, she led the company’s strategy for news and partnership with journalism organizations and the news publishing ecosystem. Just prior to joining Twitter, Vivian served as Senior VP & Chief Digital Officer for NBC News where she had strategic and operational oversight of the networks‘ presence on the web, mobile, devices, and social media.

Prior to NBC, Vivian served as President and CEO of NPR, leading all of NPR's worldwide media operations. She was Senior Vice President and General Manager of NYTimes.com and Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Discovery Times Channel, a joint venture of The New York Times and Discovery Communications. Earlier in her career, Vivian was the head of CNN Productions, where she led CNN's long-form programming efforts. Documentaries and series produced under her auspices earned multiple honors, including three Peabody Awards, four Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Awards, and dozens of Emmys.

Fidji Simo

Fidji Simo leads Video, News and Advertising in News Feed at Facebook. Most recently, she launched Live video, 360 video, videos that autoplay in News Feed, and Instant Articles. She also helped grow Facebook's mobile ad business by building new ad formats - video ads, Canvas ads, carousel ads and lead ads. Fidji joined Facebook from eBay. There, she was part of the Strategy group and rotated through eBay’s main offices of France, Spain and the US, then joined eBay’s incubation team to develop new growth businesses. She holds a Master of Management from HEC Paris and spent the last year of her Master program at UCLA Anderson School of Business. She holds several advertising- and video-related patents.

Justin B. Smith

Justin B. Smith has been the Chief Executive Officer of Bloomberg Media Group at Bloomberg L.P. since September 16, 2013. Justin was the Founder of Breaking Media, the Bali Purnati Center for the Arts, and the Ouagadougou Education Project. He served as President of Atlantic Media Company of National Journal Group Inc. from January 2010 to 2013. Justin was responsible for oversight of National Journal and Government Executive Groups, including National Journal, CongressDaily, The Hotline and Government Executive publications.

Justin served as President of Atlantic Consumer Media from 2007 to 2010. He joined Atlantic in August 2007. While at Atlantic Media, he spearheaded The Atlantic's dramatic transformation from a largely print-centric magazine to a digitally-led multi-platform franchise. Under his leadership, Atlantic Media also launched several new critically acclaimed disruptive digital platforms such as Quartz and Defense One. Prior to joining Atlantic Media in 2007, he served as President and Publisher of The Week magazine where he launched the U.S. edition in 2001. Justin joined The Week from The Economist Group, where he was head of corporate strategy in London, Hong Kong and in New York. He also worked for the U.S. Department of State in West Africa and Washington, D.C. and graduated from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.

Jim Spanfeller

Jim Spanfeller is the Founder of Spanfeller Media Group, Inc. and serves as its Chief Executive Officer and President. Prior to founding Spanfeller Media Group, Jim served as the President and CEO of Forbes.com Inc., a division of Forbes Inc. from 2000 to July 2009 and oversaw all aspects of its strategic and operational management. Previous to Forbes.com, Jim served as President of Consumer Magazine Group of Ziff Davis Enterprise, Inc. (formerly, Ziff Davis Media, Inc), where he was responsible for PC Magazine, Yahoo! Internet Life, Smart Business, Family PC and Expedia Travels; managed Ziff Davis Corporate Sales and Custom Publishing.

Before Ziff Davis Media, Jim was Publisher of Inc. Magazine, Senior Vice President, Marketing/Associate Publisher of Playboy Enterprises Publishing Group, and held senior sales positions at Newsweek. Jim has received numerous industry awards and accolades, including "Top Innovator in Business Publishing" from BtoB Media Business and induction into MIN Magazine's first-ever Digital Hall of Fame in 2006; "Top Interactive Executive for General Business Publishers" from BtoB Media Business, as part of its "Top Innovators in Business Publishing" awards, and one of its "Top 25 Newsmakers" in 2005; and one of the industry's standout media executives in MIN Magazine's annual "21 Most Intriguing People" issue in 2003. Mr. Spanfeller holds a B.A. in English Literature from Union College.

Matt Stevenson

In his role as Director of WIRED Media Group Brand Lab, Matt Stevenson oversees the creative and development of branded content initiatives. Matt is passionate about growing businesses through innovative technologies that enhance a consumer's opinion and engagement with a brand. He was key in the development and business plan that lead to the formation of WMG Brand Lab resulting in 100% year over year growth since its inception. Currently Matt’s focus is on identifying and vetting new custom content, product and business partnerships to leverage on behalf of clients. In 2015, Matt was recognized as Conde Nast’s Marketer of the Year. He also serves as a member of the Condé Nast Branded Content Growth Team focused on standards and innovation across the company's portfolio. Before joining WIRED, Matt was a senior team lead and producer with The Studio at Condé Nast, managing the execution of custom content campaigns across Condé Nast titles.

Ken Suh

Ken Suh joined Unruly in April 2014 where he is focused on developing global partnerships in programmatic advertising, native advertising, and digital media. Before joining Unruly, Kenneth led Business Development for AOL Advertising, where he helped deliver significant revenue growth through partnerships across programmatic display, video, and mobile platforms. He also formed strategic alliances with many global Fortune 500 companies, as well as top-tier advertising agencies. He brings extensive experience launching programmatic supply solutions through partnerships with demand-side platforms and real-time-bidding (RTB) exchanges.

Marta Tellado

Marta Tellado joined Consumer Reports in the fall of 2014 as President and Chief Executive Officer of Consumer Reports, the largest and most-trusted nonprofit consumer organization in the world. She began her career in the consumer movement and has 25 years of experience as a frontlines advocate and leader for social justice. She is the organization’s eighth president since its founding in 1936.

Marta is known as a transformational leader with a talent for innovation, a lifelong commitment to social justice and a distinguished portfolio of accomplishments in mission-driven organizations.

Marta came to Consumer Reports from the Ford Foundation in New York, where she was Vice President for Global Communications and an officer of the board. While there, she led strategic communications and advocacy on a range of social-justice issues in the United States and around the world, including economic fairness, free and fair access to an open Internet, and civil rights.

Born in Cuba and raised in New Jersey, Marta began her career in public policy, advocacy, and social justice working alongside consumer advocates Ralph Nader and Joan Claybrook at Public Citizen. Since then, she has served as Executive Director of the Domestic Policy Group at the Aspen Institute; as Director for National Issues and Outreach for Senator Bill Bradley; and as Vice President of the Partnership for Public Service, where she launched the Best Places to Work in the federal government and the Service to America awards.

Kinsey Wilson

Kinsey Wilson was named executive vice president, product and technology, The New York Times in March 2015. He also serves as editor for Innovation and Strategy, a role he assumed in February 2015.

Previously, Kinsey oversaw worldwide newsgathering, programming and digital operations at NPR. In that role, he drove editorial and product development to deepen NPR’s journalism, adapt to changing audience demands and extend the organization’s influence and reach. He championed the development of the NPR One mobile app, which pioneered a new personalized digital listening experience. And during his tenure, NPR’s journalism was recognized with major awards, including the prestigious Peabody and Emmy awards. He joined NPR in 2008.

Before that, Kinsey was served in senior editorial roles at USA Today, beginning in 2000 as editor-in-chief of its website and from 2005 to 2008 as executive editor. He also led Congressional Quarterly’s early web strategy from 1995 to 2000 and served as a reporter at Newsday for seven years, from 1988 to 1995..

Tim Wu

Tim Wu is a professor at Columbia Law School, director of the Poliak Center at Columbia Journalism School and a contributing writer at NewYorker.com. He is an adviser to President Obama on competition issues. He recently worked with NY Attorney General on consumer protection issues in technology, including launching a probe into whether certain ISPs were providing slower speeds to consumers than promised. Tim is best known for his work on Net Neutrality theory. He is author of The Master Switch, Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination, and other works, and in 2013 he was named one of America's 100 Most Influential Lawyers.